The term “cosmeceuticals” is a compound word comprised of the words “cosmetics” and “pharmaceuticals.” Recently, the development of cosmeceuticals has received concentrated attention. Research into functional active ingredients, research into formulations related to the acceleration of transdermal absorption of effective ingredients, and basic research into skin physiology has actively been conducted. Thus, research into the development of functional ingredients related to the prevention of skin aging, the protection of skin from external environmental factors such as ultraviolet rays, and the acceleration of creation of new skin cells, research into the efficacy thereof, and research into methods of measuring skin stability using the same have attracted considerable attention. Examples of the effective ingredients being intensively researched as raw materials of cosmetics may include vitamin A, C, E and the like, ceramide, α-hydroxy acid, β-hydroxy acid, glucan, enzymes, modulators, various plant extracts, and the like.
Vitamins have been commonly used for centuries to prevent or decrease skin wrinkles, and basic research into the influence of vitamins on skin has been actively conducted. However, it is difficult to variously apply vitamins because they have low stability. For this reason, research into improving the stability of vitamins themsemselves has been conducted in combination with the aforementioned basic research. Particularly, research into retinol, vitamin A, has been actively conducted over the last ten years. It is reported that retinol is effective at accelerating the synthesis of collagen in skin and accelerating the creation of cells by prompting the turnover of the stratum corneum. However, retinol is problematic in that strong skin irritancy is caused when an excessive amount of retinol is applied to skin, and in that retinol itself is very unstable. Therefore, there is required a formulation technology which can accelerate the transdermal absorption of retinal and can continuously and uniformly apply retinol to the skin such that the stability of retinol is improved and the activity of retinol is sufficiently and effectively exhibited even when a small amount of retinol is used. In order to solve the above problem, currently, research into encapsulation, anhydrous bases, and special container development is being conducted, and, particularly, research into the encapsulation of retinol using a polymer is being variously conducted both at home and abroad.
For example, Korean Patent Registration No. 0463167 discloses a transdermal absorbent, wherein retinol, as a bioactive ingredient, is captured in polymer particles each having a size of several nanometers to several hundreds of nanometers, and the polymer particles diffuse and permeate into the skin to allow the polymer particles provided with the bioactive ingredient to stay in an intermediate layer of a skin structure, so the bioactive ingredient included in the polymer particle is slowly transferred into the skin.
However, as described above, when retinol is captured in polymer particles and then directly diffuses and permeates into the skin, there is a problem in that the skin is irritated, and the stability of retinal in a formulation cannot be sufficiently assured. The present inventors found that, when retinol is primarily adsorbed on mesoporous polymer beads, the mesoporous polymer beads including retinol are secondarily formed into retinol capsules using a stabilization technology for forming nano-emulsions, and then when the retinol capsules are used in cosmetics, the stability of retinol is greatly improved, thereby making it possible to manufacture cosmetics whose transdermal absorption is accelerated, whose skin irritancy (the greatest problem of retinol) is reduced and whose skin wrinkle reducing effect is improved. Based on this finding, the present invention was completed.